I’m severely behind the times on this, but Tauba Auerbach is my new hero. I came across her work last night and have been pretty obsessed since then. For those like me who are unfamiliar with her, she’s a San Francisco based artist who went to Stanford and now makes some really beautiful art. It’s all pretty conceptual, like the stack of gradient colored paper bound like a book, or the third piece above which is acrylic on canvas, even though it looks like something you’d make on a computer. Words can’t do her art justice, just click here to see a huge trove of her work and get obsessed like me.

My friend Chris sent me this link last week, a photo blog from Japan that has an amazing collection of long exposure images of fireflys. I’m not entirely sure what the photographers name is, (Editor’s Note: It’s Tsuneaki Hiramatsu) though I did see mention to a Mr. Coro, any help with figuring out his proper name would be appreciated.

It looks like he’s been shooting these fireflys for about 8 years now, getting better and better as he goes. He shoots a lot of his images in Okayama where they have firefly season. If you like these images you should visit his blog and see the images blown up, they look much better that way.

Violeta Lópiz is an illustrator who comes from the Spanish island of Ibiza. Her beautifully textured work is filled with personality and playfulness, and her illustrations have appeared in newspapers and children’s book.

Her most recent book (pictured above) is called Les Poings sur les îles. It is a collaboration with the French author Elise Fontenaille and it is filled with Violeta’s own unique style; combining rich colors and lush and delicate textures to create some pretty amazing looking illustrations. The way in which these images are constructed really give the work an organic feel and I can imagine that it’s a style that would really appeal to children. Check out more of Violeta’s work online here.

Spotted this video on Vimeo earlier and it grabbed my eye immediately. The song is by a fellow named Úlfur (full name Úlfur Hansson) who I’m 99% sure is the bassist for Jonsí’s band when he tours. Striking out on his own he’s created this beautiful electronic track which reminds me a bit of something you might hear in a Miyazaki film. The video was directed by Máni M. Sigfússon who created an abstract piece of art that’s sort of gothic Enya. He directs videos for all the biggest Icelandic musicians, so I’d highly suggest you check out the rest of his videos as well.

Last Thursday I was given access to the beta of Vimeo’s new redesign, a bold effort to to make the site feel very 2K12, rather than 2009. Here are some thoughts on the goods and the could-have-been-betters of the design.

– The UI is a ton cleaner, giving all the focus to the video. This is evident in a couple spots like the home page, which now gives you three different ways to view the site, the version above being my favorite. The large, bold preview images definitely take the focus.

– The top navigation now opens up to reveal a drawer full of options, which is a great way to showcase a ton of different places to go. It’s also nice that they spell out what each section will contain for people who are unfamiliar.

– The individual video pages have also been cleaned up immensely. All you really see is a giant video on your screen, the way it was meant to be.

– Text hierarchy has strongly enforced around the site, telling you exactly what you should be looking at, such as the titles of the videos which come in at a whopping 36 px font.

– The More Video tab at top is a nice touch, showing related content as well as videos you’ve recently views and other videos from the user who’s video page you’re on. Some people I showed said they wouldn’t have noticed it though, so perhaps it’s a bit too discrete?

– Glad they didn’t touch the video player, it’s perfect.

– They now give you a more clear option to switch between the Flash and HTML5 player. Unfortunately, the HTML5 player sucks and barely worked when I used it at home. That said, my developer friends at work said that HTML5 sucks at playing video, so this probably shouldn’t reflect on Vimeo.

– The sidebar feels a bit sloppy and slightly overwhelming. It’s definitely treated subordinately, which I’m sure is the point, but it ended up feeling a it neglected. Not sure if there’s a fix or if they should change anything, but it was something I’d noticed.

– The site is starting to feel more social, like you’d want to try and hunt down your friends and see what they’re doing. I didn’t get this vibe before and never bothered to look. The only users I followed were those making rad shit, using the site more like a bookmarking system.

Overall I’d say the redesign is a huge step forward, especially for it’s art and design-centric community. Looking forward to the Vimeo team to continue rolling out improvements like these, hopefully they don’t take another few years.

Today on Los Angeles, I’m Yours, we have a special treat: an interview with artist Andrew Holder. Holder has been featured on The Fox Is Black quite a few times and is a super sweet guy, living in a nice little house in Eagle Rock. We spoke with him about his work and inspirations, how Art Center in Pasadena is the reason he is in the city, and how surfing in Los Angeles isn’t very good. Be sure to check it out and, if the interview doesn’t sell you, he also wanted to climb up a tree for his portrait (which ended up being super rad). You can read the story here.

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I don’t remember how I came across Dimlite’s new album Grimm Reality, but I’m certainly happy I did. The songs he’s produced for this record feel like they’re influenced heavily by the past, bits of jazz and hip-hop, weird guitar rock, experimentations with sound. And though that could be a hot mess, somehow Dimlite makes it all work in on chaotic yet cohesive mess. I’m usually shit at describing music, so here’s what Stones Throw had to say:

Titling his third album Grimm Reality might seem to point to a new autobiographical streak in this Swiss musician, but that would be too simple. It’s up to the listener to piece together a version of Grimm’s reality from mere hints: the wistful romance of “XY,” the tension and release of “New, Better Pain” and soon through every perfectly poised moment on this record. Likewise, looking for the remains of a hip-hop influence, or a connection to what’s happening on modern-day dance floors, won’t yield much here. The precedents that spring to mind are all cherished outsiders – Neu, The Residents, Beefheart, Philip Glass – footnotes in mainstream music history but, in an altogether preferable parallel universe, titans of the recent past.

It’s the swirling mixture of sounds that really give the album it’s character. I’ve been listening to the new album from RareBit (who’s track we posted last week) and it’s got a similar sound, if that’s even possible. It’s this melange of styles and historical sounds that are weaved together to create a new, cohesive something. I’d definitely recommend picking up this album if you like what you hear in the track above, titled XY.

Over the weekend I discovered the music of Philadelphia natives Work Drugs. Last year, the band played support to Two Door Cinema Club during their North American tour, and during that time, they listened to a lot of Adele. After traveling 8,000 miles with little more then Adele’s album for company, the band aptly decided to pay tribute to the English singer by covering her track Rolling in the Deep.

I really like what they do to the song – stripping it back until it’s barely recognizable and then feeding it through a filter of their own unique smooth-fi sound. I think it works really well and it’s nice to hear such a fresh take on a track that has seen a lot of covers and remixes over the past few months. Make sure to check out more music from Work Drugs here on their Bandcamp page.